Evan F. Moore: NRA ad nothing but anti-liberal rhetoric

When it comes to propaganda, the lines can become blurred rather quickly.

And in this day and age where people respond to facts based on their partisan politics, trying to separate truth from lies can have dangerous consequences.

In late June, the National Rifle Association, an advocacy group for gun owners and 2nd Amendment rights, released an ad all but calling for an open rebellion against those who opposed their rhetoric.

“They use their media to assassinate real news. They use their schools to teach children that their president is another Hitler,” says conservative commentator Dana Loesch in the ad. “They use their movie stars and singers and comedy shows and award shows to repeat their narrative over and over again, and then they use their ex-president to endorse the resistance.”

The ad goes on suggest that law enforcement would have “no choice but to do their jobs and stop the madness,” while saying that liberals will use such tactics “as an excuse for their outrage.”

Of course, I’m assuming this is anti-liberal rhetoric. The ad never mentions anyone or anything by name, only a sinister “they.”

Let’s take a look at Loesch’s comments, starting off with President Trump being juxtaposed with former Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler. Well, candidate Trump was endorsed by the Ku Klux Klan, a well-known white supremacist group that has long sympathized with the Nazi Party. We’ll say there’s a shred of fact there.

Now let’s talk about “their outrage.” When a Chicago police officer used 16 shots to kill Laquan McDonald as he was walking away from the officer, the shooting garnered national attention along with thousands of protests, and led to the city police superintendent and the state’s attorney for Cook County losing their jobs after tape of the incident was withheld from the public for well over a year.

This has been one of the few protests, sadly, that seemed to create a bit of justice for someone slain in a high-profile police shooting. So if that’s what it takes to create change, sign me up.

But the NRA ad is oozing with hypocrisy. Remember, these are the same folks who often call out activists and protesters for using their constitutional rights, and now they’re taking their ball and going home. I guess we can only protest for what the right thinks is important — “their” country and “their” freedom, to paraphrase the ad.

Just imagine if a group of black people or Muslims had encouraged their followers to “fight this violence of lies with a clenched fist of truth,” as Loesch suggests to the NRA faithful. The reaction would make conservative media and their followers’ heads explode.

In a previous column, I mentioned that America ought to feel lucky that black people only want equality, not revenge.

It appears that the NRA wants the latter and then some. — Evan F. Moore is a syndicated columnist with GateHouse Media. He writes about the intersection of race, violence and culture. His work has been featured in Rolling Stone, Chicago Tribune and Ebony. Follow him on Twitter @evanfmoore.